The Wild World of Lydia Lunch

So, what the heck is the point of this thing? I like Lydia Lunch and this thing made me want to sleep. A lot. Featuring shots of her sitting in bed being grumpy with overdubs of her grumpily speaking grumpy poetry the only thing of note or interest in this film is a very cute dog. Amazingly, for a Nick Zedd film, no harm comes to the dog. Nor to Lydia Lunch.

In fact, nothing happens to, with, for, around, or near young Miss Lunch throughout the 18+ hours of this film. Or so. I think it's about 20 minutes.

At the least, in Right Side of My Brain, aside from the uncomfortable J.G. Thirlwell scene, we get to see Hank Rollins whap her upside the head. Not at all meant to be misogynistic (thought the film is), but at least it's something.

I note that the other reviewers of this short film are less than enthusiastic about it. I can understand that it's not immediately accessible and has a non-conventional structure, but don't let that put you off. For what it's worth, I enjoyed this. Zedd is a legend among no-budget directors and he has a particular aesthetic that is designed to be confrontational. In this film he moves beyond confrontation to produce something that made me feel genuinely sombre and wistful.

Some background - to make this film, Zedd followed Lunch to the British Isles and spent a month in London and Ireland following her around with a camera, basically filming their breakup. The voice-over that Lunch provides at the start of the film was her "fuck-off-and-leave-me-alone recording" that she had taped and mailed to Zedd when he was still in the US. I find the voice-over very revealing of Lunch's mental state at the time, but it's interesting to hear that she is still enough of a spoken word artist to make it so eloquently bitter and darkly humorous. While on camera, Lunch clearly doesn't want to be filmed and her scowling, sulky expression and dark gothic demeanour throughout the film contrasts strangely with the suburban and rural British locations. There is one great incongruous scene where Lunch is pushing a small boy on a swing that conjures up feelings of loss and yearning for me. You really sense that neither Zedd nor Lunch are at all in a happy place during the making of this.

The fact that Zedd travelled all that way too make it after being told he wasn't welcome at all says a lot about him as a film maker. Lunch has said of him - "That he was bold enough to come and track me down anyway is a testament to his stubborn dedication to his art." For me that's exactly what this film is - a testament to Zedd's stubborn dedication to his art.